Panic in Armenia: What is going on at the Russian base in Gyumri?

After the hostilities in Karabakh were suspended, Armenian media started to spread rumors about the situation around the Russian military base in Gyumri, Oxu.Az reports citing haqqin.az.

Some Armenian media have recently published reports that the Russian base dislocated in Gyumri allegedly intensified the patrolling and took out the military hardware to the streets. They also wrote that members of the Russian servicemen's families are abandoning Armenia. The panic was also strengthened by the fact that Gazprom unexpectedly suspended gas supplies to Gyumri.

Graparak newspaper published the article titled 'Russians act weirdly in Gyumri'. This material is based solely on allegations and caused concern among the population, Armenian Sputnik reports.

In order to clarify the situation, the agency sent it correspondent to Gyumri..

"The people are concerned about the situation in Karabakh, is there any need for writing such articles?,' local taxi driver Karapet told Sputnik's correspondent. He called the article 'a rumor'.

The panic in Armenia has reached such a scale that Gyumri mayor's office was forced to make a special statement in which it dismissed the information about the Russian military hardware on the Gyumri streets but did not refute the information that the families of Russian miltaries are leaving Armenia.

"As for the families of Russian militaries, the mayor's office considers it normal that people leave Armenia for Russia with their families and then return to Armenia," the statement from Gyumri's mayor's office reports.

The spread of such rumors about the Russian military base is explained in Armenia by saying that Armenia has a grudge against its ally Russia for not supporting it in the four-day war in Karabakh. Armenia still complains that Azerbaijan used the most advanced weapons supplied to it by Russia in this war.

Sargsyan and other Armenian officials ask Russia to stop arms supplies to Azerbaijan. But all these efforts produced no effect since Russian officials announced that arms supplies to Azerbaijan will continue in line with the signed contracts.